Those words uttered over the phone after 11pm on Friday night were the start of a nightmare. The call was to Ruth S and at the time I was really struggling.
I'd gone to work in the afternoon and apart from being cold, started to go to the loo with unusual frequency - and it was all about runny motions. I didn't think too much about it at first because I'd take the lactulose in the morning that is designed to stop the morphine generating constipation. Of course I wasn't taking morphine any more, so just thought this was my body adjusting. I was so wrong.
I got home and between drinking copious amounts of water and going to the loo (every 1/2 hour or so), I was doing nothing else. By the time I got to bed I was drained. Things just weren't settling down, so I made the call for help to Ruth S.
First action was she rang the district nurses and they recommended we call the ambulance without delay. The ambulance duly arrived and after some initial poking and prodding, they decided A&E was were I needed to be. Calls to the district nurses and Hutt Hospital followed to see if they should take me there or to Wellington. Hutt it was to be.
Walking to the ambulance took all my strength and the trip down was not comfortable, not least because I wasn't convinced I'd need to go to the loo again before we arrived.
Safely at A&E, I was moved to a cubicle quite quickly and they took bloods for testing. It was about 1/2 an hour later I starting throwing up what was my overnight feed. So now I had both ends working and was feeling even worse. As is the way, the nurses all vanish for an hour or so, my time is spend going to the loo and having the odd occasional vomit.
Eventually a Doctor comes to see me and my bloods are OK. She is sure I've picked up a gastric bug that would need to work it's way through my system. I know my immune system is still slightly shot, but I though you got these things from dodgy food or exposure to someone suffering already. I'd had no "suspect" exposure to people and wasn't eating real food, so seems I was just plain lucky.
They gave me an injection to try and settle the spasms down a bit then sent me home. I was also off all foods until it came right. I had to only have clear liquids.
The weekend was quite frankly bloody terrible. I got no sleep Friday or Saturday nights because I was still up to the loo with annoying frequency and when I was in bed, I was sipping water to try and stop my throat drying out. Sunday night wasn't much better either, but I somehow managed an hour sleep late in the piece. Daytimes was the same routine - loo and water.
Monday I thought I might be starting to get a little better, but it wasn't to be and there was little sleep again last night.
Today, well I'm still unsure yet, so will bide my time.
I weighed myself yesterday and this thing has knocked around 7kg off my weight - that is scary.
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